


Waking up

by Keeper_Amy



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Afterlife, F/M, Shepard Survives, or not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 01:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10561036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keeper_Amy/pseuds/Keeper_Amy
Summary: Shepard wakes up in a place between life and death and is waiting for Garrus at the bar. After a talk with Mordin she decides to wake up.





	

Is there anything quite as blissful as an amble by the seashore? It’s like walking through an airy womb of sky and sound. The sea is a cerulean-blue gown and the beach seems dipped in earthshine-gold.  
The mermaid’s call of the waves reaches out to you and you have to resist its siren call to enter the copper-bottomed depths. When you cast your eyes out to sea, you observe that the horizon is hemmed in a shining gold from the rising sun. The waves in the distance are like white creases on a vast bale of velvet.  
Yeah, there are a lot of wonderful seas, but this one before Alexandra Shepard was beautiful .  
The pulsing heart of the sea caused a gentle swell and the waves cascading onto the shore had that ancient alchemy of purr-and-pound. The sounds every wave made let shivers crawl down her spine. The sand was warm and soft under her bare feet; sun shining upon her face and a warm wind let her short hair dance. She felt as if she belonged to this beach, as if it was her home.

She felt save here.  
She looked around and admired the feng-shui perfection of the beach. The palm trees are lined in serried rows and dip their heads in obedience to the sea. They have an Eden-green beauty that cannot be rivalled any other place she had ever seen. And god, she had traveled to a lot of planets.  
From the sky she could tell this planet wasn’t earth, because beside the sun there was a smaller star too and the sky was maybe a little bit greenish. But still, she could breathe normally, since she didn’t had her armor nor oxygen tanks with her.  
Only a colorful bikini covered her body.  
Shepard wasn’t alone. Beside her on a blanked laid a Salarian she knows way to close. He was kind of her best friend. And deep inside her a feeling of sadness spread as she looked at the seashell in her hand. There was something wrong with it… But she couldn’t say what it was.

“Shepard? Are you coming? I need that red shell, now.” spoke Mordin, bringing the woman back to reality. She sat down beside her alien friend and gave him the mentioned shell.  
She felt somehow… tired… but on the other hand she was feeling great. Just seeing him made the Commander happy. But why did she feel this way?  
“Mordin..?”  
“Yeah, Shepard?”

She stayed silent. What could she ask? No clue. Instead she winked it off and looked around the beach. There was a beach bar not too far away from the sea. Deep in her mind she remembered to meet someone at the bar, but no one was there, yet. So she chose to stay on the ground looking up at the sky.  
“No use, Shepard.” sighed Mordin as he turned to the woman. “Though, nice meeting you again.” his lip corners turned up forming a flat smile.  
The Commander looked confused. “What are you talking about Mordin? And… where are the others?”  
“So you don’t know? I see… You are not fully here yet. Maybe… Yeah, you still can go back, I think.” muttered the Salarian, confusing Alexandra even more.  
Then pictures of a child flashed before her eyes. Also she remembered pain, and her body started to feel heavy. Her vision blurred slightly, so she had to focus to see Mordin clearly before her.  
Suddenly her whole body was hit by an electric shock, making her jump up and clutching her chest. Mordin flowered her up, giving her a hand so she could stood up without shaking too much. “Interesting. Heart stimulation, I guess.” he tried to explain what was happening to her, but it didn’t really help.

Every night she would dream of many faces of anguish, of the look at first of the mortally wounded--of that indescribable look;  
Of the dead on their backs, with arms extended wide,  
She dreamed, She dreamed, She dreamed.  
Slowly memories were coming back to her, filling the gaps.

Of scenes of nature, fields and mountains;  
Of skies, so beauteous after a storm--and at night the moon so unearthly bright, shining sweetly, shining down, where we dig the trenches and gather  
the heaps,  
She dreams, She dreams, She dreams.  
Of the Crucible and the Catalyst, of the Reapers and of the war that brought many death upon her.  
Of her friends she lost…  
“Mordin….” A tear run down her checks.  
Suddenly another shock went through her body.  
She doesn’t dream. She dies….

“They are trying to take you back. Go Shepard, before it’s too late. Like I said, nice seeing you again. Who tough Commander Shepard can run from death a second time? Hach… Will be waiting though. Humans lifespan isn’t that long. I can wait a few decades, no worry. No hurry and leave!”  
“Mordin!” now she was crying like a child who was forbidden to buy some sweets at the shop. “I-I lost. Th-thee Crucible… I-I had to choose. All machines are… gone. But – I am one too! I can’t be alive.” She really was afraid. The Catalyst explained it to her. One way or another she’d die to save the galaxy. Does that mean…. the Crucible… didn’t work?  
Mordin waved her a last goodbye, even said something she could not hear, then the next electroshock took her vision away.  
When she opened her eyes again, she felt weak, like something ate a piece of her life. Lights flashed before her eyes as she tried to focus her vision that was really blurry. She breathed heavy, still trying to figure out what was real and what not. All kinds of voices reached her ears, still, she didn’t understand even one word. At first.

_All around me are familiar faces_   
_Worn out places, worn out faces_   
_Bright and early for their daily races_   
_Going nowhere, going nowhere_

She searched the room for someone she knew, for someone she could talk to. All the people were busy around her. There was only one human among the aliens. Shepard didn’t have any idea who it could be.  
And as they noticed that she had awoken, the doctors held still. Not even breathing.  
Suddenly they called out names, maybe only words, who knows. Shepard’s translator was playing crazy.

_Their tears are filling up their glasses_   
_No expression, no expression_   
_Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow_   
_No tomorrow, no tomorrow_

Pain filled her whole body. It felt like she slept for years. Well, maybe she did. After the whole reaper thing she could have been in a coma for a long time. Right… the Reapers, the fight.  
All of a sudden someone took hold of her hand. Her head turned around to see a turian with sorrow written all over his face. He cried like a baby as he stroke her knotted hair. The doctors tried to pull him away from her, but he never let go.  
“Garrus…” Shepard whispered with her rough voice that hasn’t been used in a long while. “Garrus!” she started to cry out, finally remembering her life before the whole war begun.

_And I find it kinda funny_   
_I find it kinda sad_   
_The dreams in which I'm dying_   
_Are the best I've ever had_

_I find it hard to tell you_   
_I find it hard to take_   
_When people run in circles_   
_It's a very, very mad world, **mad world**_

Shepard and Garrus didn’t understand each other, but that wasn’t a big deal. All that mattered was having him right beside her. Alive. Now that everything was over in this mad world she had to hold onto her love. After all, she came back from death to meet with Garrus.  
There is really no Shepard without Vakarian. Not even in the after world. When one sees hope, the other does to.


End file.
